Friday, December 18, 2015

Take a Deep Breath

Sarah P. “Praise the LORD! I will thank the LORD
with all my heart as I meet with His godly people. How amazing are the
deeds of the LORD! All who delight in Him should ponder them. Everything
He does reveals His glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.
He causes us to remember His wonderful works. How gracious and merciful
is our LORD!” -Psalms 4-111:1 NLT I’m a fan of a Christian band
known as The Afters. I want to start off today by introducing some
lyrics from their song “Breathe In Breathe Out,” which is one of my
favorites. It goes like this: “[I] Always think tomorrow will be better There will come a day when I arrive The list of everything I’ve gotta do would be a page of empty lines I apologize…for living in the future… Cause if happiness if always down the road, then I’m missing it today.” How
often do we live in the future? We get so caught up in our next class,
our next assignment, our next meeting, our next meal, our next
everything, when life is lived not in the future but in the present
moment. Sometimes we just need to slow down, take a deep breath, and
thank God for the amazing things around us. In this psalm, David chooses
to focus on God’s greatness and glory for a few minutes out of his busy
day- and he was the king of Israel! Surely we can set aside time for
God in our days as well! As teens, we tend to focus on the
future. We tend to think our lives will “get better” or we’ll “arrive”
when we turn eighteen, or get our driver’s license, or graduate, or
start college. Yet we need to focus on appreciating what we have right
now. Planning for the future is good, but we can’t get so caught up in
it that we forget to be thankful for what we have. Today, that is my
challenge to you: slow down, take a deep breath, and thank God for
something in your life. It doesn’t have to be difficult; maybe you’re
just thankful for Christmas lights, or your sweet dog, or chocolate. You
might be surprised at how many things you can come up with! The point
is that gratitude helps us focus on the One who gives us our lives
instead of what’s down the road from here. What are you thankful for today?